Protecting-casing for tires.



PATENTED APR. 14, 1908,

PROTECTING CASING FOR TIRES.

N. GATES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 16, 1907- lNyENToR.

[0 "14112 N.Ca!es WITNESSES:

protecting casin LORWIN N. GATES, or sr. LOUIS, nrssounr.

PROTECTING-CASING FOR TIRES.

Specification oi. Letters Patent.

Patented April 14, 1908.

Application filed June 15, 1907. Serial No. 379,188.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that LLQRWIN N. CATEs, citizen of the United States, residing at St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Protecting-Casings for -Tires, of which the fol 1 lowing is a full, clear, and exact description,

reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof.

'My invention has relation to improvements in protecting casings for pneumatic tires; and it consists in the novel construction of easing more fully set lorth in the specification and'pointed out in the, claims.

In the drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of a portion of a pneumatic tire showing my invention applied thereto Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line 22 of Fig. 1, the rim and tire being shown dotted; Fig. 3 is a faceview of three pair of interlocking sections entering into the construction of my casing; Fig.4

is an inside view of one pair of sections; and" Fig. 5 is a sectional detail on the line 55 of Fig. 3.

The object of my invention is to provide a pneumatic tire with an outer casing which shall serve as the tread for the wheel thereby protecting the pneumatic or air-inflated section against puncture or destruction.

A further'object is to construct a casing which will be eminently pliable and yielding, readily conforming to the compressions to which the inflated portion is subjected under the load which it carries and the strains to which it is subjected one which can be readily applied to the tire, and one possessing 'urther and other advantages better apparent from a detailed description of the invention which'is as follows:

Referring to the drawings, it, represents the rim and T, the pneumatic. tire thereof as usual .in automobile constructions. The

enveloping the outer portion of the periphery of the tire, and forming the tread of the wheel, is composed of a series of sections a hinged to a series of sections 5, the hinge in it being shown in section in Fig. 2. T e inner surfaces of the sections a, b are provided with parallel ribs or corrugations 0 so as to better grip the tire, the said sections having formed similar ribs d on their outer facesoneaoh side of the hinge axis, whereby a firm purchase is in sured as the wheel is passing over the ground, and slipping is avoided. Projecting from one edge of each section and disposed parallel to the plane of rotation of the wheel, is a tongue 1, terminating in a transverse rounded enlargement or head 2, the adjacent section having formed a groove 3 and socket t for the respective reception of said tongue. and head, whereby the members of each hinged pair of sections become interlock ed in hnes parallel to the rotation of the wheel, the sections being disposed axes occupying the tread portion of the wheel. over the tire until the space between t e end sections is just sufficient to admit the final pair or "key, whereupon the operation is complete. A sufficient number (or all) of the sections are connected to the rim by chains 5 extending from the outer edges of the sections to the edge ofthe rim (Figs. 1, 2) so that there shall be no danger of the sections working out and becomingdisengaged from the tire.

The weight which any wheel must support will spread the bottom pair of sections in its rotation, the sections oscillating (opening more or less) under'such weight about their hinge 'aXis, and closing in on the tire as they leave the ground with the wheels rotation. Again, the several sections freely conform to any curvature which the wheel may assume under the compression which the tire suffers,

by virtue of the freedom with which any pair 7 of sections rock about their interlocking pair, it being understood that the heads 2 form fulcrums in the pockets or sockets 4 about which any member a, b isfree to oscillate (in planes parallel to the wheels rotation, or at right angles to tl e hinge axis between the members of any pair ofsections).

The sections of the casing are thus yielding bothin the general plane of the wheel'and at right angles thereto, so that noinconvenionce is suffered by the occupant of the vehicle. Of course these oscillations of the sections are very slight and for a wheel of large diameter would be scarcely noticeable, unless it be the transverse oscillations under a heavy load. Should these become excessive the chains 5 would arrest them and thus prevent any section'from extricating itself from the tire. These sections are made of steel and wear for an indefinite period of time, and prolong the life of the pneumatic tire to a degree scarcely attainable with any other form of easing.

about hinge- 65 The pairs of sections are thus assed Having described my invention what I and thus interlocking with the sections carryclaim is ing said tongues, substantielly'usset forth. 10 A tire-casin composed of series of pairs of In testimony whereof I afiix my signature,

sections hinge together along the outer edge in presence of two witnesses. 5 or tread of the wheel, tongues rejecting LORWIN N. GATES.

from the sections on opposite si es of the Witnesses: hinge-line, and sockets formed in the con- EMIL STAREK,

tiguous sections for receiving said tongues T. EVANS. 

